Some additional Comments to fellow BGs Fan

Agree with most of the comments you see in this review section. Want to add that the most interesting part of this CD is the inclusion of "My World" and "Melody Fair". "My World" topped the chart outside US when it came out and just blew the world away. It's like everywhere you went, you heard it on the radio, street corner cafe shop, taxi cab. The song demonstrated the range of Robin as he carried the tune for most part and the two other brothers provided chorus. "Melody Fair" was really the title track to an English movie of the same name as Barry Gibb wrote the score for the movie. That movie was a major hit worldwide of puppy love theme, in a way the movie made this song more popularly accepted. American fan may be less aware of this song.

Best of Volume 2 is so Mellow, It?s cool.

Best of Volume 2, while having a hideous cover, superbly collects the best of the Bee Gees mellow sound. 1973 was a down year for the Brothers. United, but almost artistically bankrupt, BV2 stretches back to 1968 for material.
Wouldn't I Be Someone leads off Side One and was the proposed single from the unreleased A Kick In The Head Is Worth Eight In The Pants. Indeed this is probably the best of that bunch, with Barry and Robin alternating this moody tune. And imagine when I discovered the lyrics inside this sleeve! Alone these sounds are so great to cry to, but when you also have the words to actually read along, everything takes on a whole poetic feel. The interlude sung by Robin `Midnight stars are shining on my shoeshine...' almost sounds like a child contemplating his sad fate. This combined with the instrumental arrangement is ingenious.

IOIO is the complete opposite of Someone It's such an upbeat reggae style song, yet they lyrics are actually very sad. You can be happy and sing along or be sad and sing along and nobody around would know the difference. My World was a previously unreleased cut that found its way here. Despite this odd mix of old and rare, there are several gems here. This is one of them. It's lyrics are plain and simple-mine, yours, ours, what else is there? Yet the three-part harmony is so smart and complex. Great juxtaposition.
Instead of sweeping their prior split under the rug, The Bee Gees embraced it. Saved By The Bell and Don't Forget To Remember are added here to represent Robin, then Barry and Maurice, respectively ;0). With Bell, Robin almost sounds like a bell. The rhyme scheme and orchestral mix showed he could hold his own. Again hearing this on record just sounds so 1970 it's cool. Don't Forget To Remember also has some great lines from Barry and Maurice that just belong on record. There isn't much Maurice on this compilation, which I would normally For Shame! However, the tone here is the one of crying alone in the dark, which who is better for that than Quaver Robin or Breathy Barry?

My word if ever a song was meant for the record player and the record player alone it has to be And The Sun Will Shine! The slight pops and hisses and slight flat tone of the record just put the mellow sound over the top. Never mind those lyrics of trees, skies, love, and life! The song starts off slow, almost with no music. It's almost as if Robin were right here whispering in your ear. Then you look at the vinyl spinning and it sends chills up your spine.
Oh Run To Me is just darling. The guitar and vocal work here is marvelous. The lyric of 'Run to me, whenever you're lonely' is just so fitting. You're feeling down and out, put on The Bee Gees to console you.
I hadn't heard Man For All Seasons before my first listen here. In fact, I need to look up what album it originally came from, but it's pretty good darn good. Again harmony and rhyme, can anybody do it better?

How Can You Mend A Broken Heart leads off Side Two with its monster self. Barry and Robin poured the feelings about their rift into this song and came out with one of life's two biggest questions. (The other being How Deep Is Your Love? 80)=) ) The Boys can't give you the answers, but they make the questions a bit easier to deal with. Like How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Don't Want To Live Inside Myself is also from Trafalgar. Where Heart is more reflective and questioning, Don't Want To Live Inside Myself is almost dark, edgy, angry, yet soft somehow. You almost feel sorry for it, but love it at the same time. Barry's soul delivery and the rock hard music parallel this feeling.
I'm going to be in tears doing this review! Everyone needs a good cry! Melody Fair again moves you by reflecting its lyrics in the music. When Melody sees the rain, the music sounds like raindrops. Maurice's harmonizing here is awesome. It seems to also reflect the story of Melody and the issues she's hiding under the surface. %^&*$% good!

Although they had to stretch for material, 1968's Let There Be Love fits the track list here. The musical and vocal arrangement is very orchestral. When Barry's vocal crescendo comes, you wonder how he can possibly top it, but
Robin joins in and the song rises to a whole nother level. Yes why can't there be love? Let there be love!
Now, ahem, the one rocking testament on Best of Volume 2 is Lonely Days. Written on the same day as How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, the Boys speak of their wives being their only saving graces during the band's split. It's so raw and real, human nature at its high and low described perfectly in song.
Next is In The Morning, or rather as it's entitled here Morning of My Life. This seems to be the version used for the Melody soundtrack. I personally like the original version on the 63-66 compilations better, but the slower rhythm here is ubermellow. Where the original version is more quirky, here however, it feels just like you've stayed up all night. The sunrise and rainbow you see are so beautiful, but somehow bittersweet. Now, anybody who's ever done that and felt that way, did you ever think there would be a song to describe that feeling? I know The Bee Gees rock!

Alive starts out bittersweet like In The Morning, but it quickly picks up with its affirming beat and lyrics. As crazy as this album can make you, Alive turns everything around and tastefully flips the bird at the mellow sound. It's so what! lyrics almost prep the Brothers Gibb for the kick-ass that was to come.
The early seventies were a very slow and mellow period for the Bee Gees, almost too mellow. However, mellow can serve its purpose, and Best Of Volume 2 is indeed a collection of the best. Try and find it on record, then save it for a rainy day. My Mom calls it `tin-e', whatever that means.

Not many big hits but interesting

This compilation includes the best of their music from mid-1969 to 1972. This period started with Saved by the bell (a Robin Gibb solo) and Don't forget to remember (perhaps my favorite Bee Gees song), both of which reached number two on the UK charts. They had little success for some time after that. In 1970, I O I O scraped into the top fifty, but Lonely days did better, making the top forty. In 1971, they didn't enter the UK charts at all. 1972 was better with My world making the top twenty and Run to me making the top ten. They had never really established themselves in America with their sixties pop-folk music and the songs from this collection didn't change that.

So this album may be seen by some as the best of a bad period in the careers of the Bee Gees. In fact, there are many good songs in this collection. I particularly like Melody fair and Morning of my life. Are the songs really weaker than those on the earlier volume, or is it just that people were tired of the style and wanted something different from the Bee Gees? It is probably a bit of both.

If you enjoy the earlier Best of Bee Gees, you are likely to also enjoy this - but not quite as much.